Kyoudai Ai
by Kuroaki
Summary: Hurray for sibling love! Fuji thinks it would be amusing to matchmake his poor brother, and Tachibana just wants his sister to stay out of trouble. Utterly crack pairings. Episode Eight: Yuuta plus An equals Spying!
1. Episode 1

"Ne, onii-chan," Tachibana An suddenly spoke up as they were walking home one day. "Doesn't it strike you that Fuji-san is so….feminine looking?"

Tachibana Kippei gave his sister a Look. "What?"

"Mou, but it must bother you," An said persistently. "It bothers me! He's so pretty…I'm almost jealous."

Tachibana wanted to laugh, had the nature of the conversation hadn't been so weird. Instead, he kept a straight face. "It's not nice to talk about him like that, An. He's been a really good guy," he admonished her, with extra emphasis on the word 'guy'.

"But doesn't it bother you?" An insisted.

Tachibana sighed. "No, it doesn't. And it's not as if he purposely tries to be effeminate. Don't you dare open up such a discussion with anyone on this."

An sulked, a little. "Hai, hai."

Tachibana was half-afraid that she would persist, but luckily, she dropped the subject. Because his sister knew him well, and Tachibana could not lie to An without her getting suspicious.

It _did _bother him. Much more than he could ever admit to himself.

He had been struck by how pretty the auburn-haired boy when they had first met – at the district preliminaries. Of course, it had only been a passing glance, since his intention stopping by the Seigaku group was only to give his greetings to Tezuka, and Tachibana didn't even think about it a second time.

It wasn't until much, much later when Fuji's …femininity….stuck in his mind like a pop song overplayed on the radio.

He had been greatly surprised when the tensai had shown up in his hospital room that rainy rainy day, when he had been expecting no visitors except for his own family. He was also greatly touched.

He had no idea what made him give his favourite grip tape so easily to the tensai. It could be his generous nature. Or it might not be, given that he rarely could bear to part with the things he loved most.

Or it could be that Fuji just looked like a girl _so much_ that he felt that it would be most ungentlemanly to refuse. Even more so, since Fuji was just so…._pretty._

And since then, he couldn't get the sweet smile out of his head.

"Maybe he's not really a guy," An suddenly said.

Tachibana frowned at his sister, who grinned weakly. "We're home…."

_xxxxxxx_

Fuji smiled happily.

After all, nothing was more enjoyable than having dinner with his sister AND his brother.

Even if said brother was scowling.

But at least, Fuji reasoned, he wasn't scowling because of him, for once.

"It'll be rather difficult for you to get a girlfriend, no?" Yumiko questioned him persistently. "I mean, being at an all-boys school. You won't get to meet anyone!"

Fuji chuckled.

Yuuta glared at him, and looked uncomfortably at his sister. "Nee-san, I'm only thirteen! Shouldn't you be more worried about Aniki?"

Fuji Yumiko turned to her chuckling brother. "Well….why should I?"

Fuji stopped chuckling. "Ara?"

"Sou desu ne," Yumiko said in an all-knowing tone. "Fuji receives love letters and gifts every day, even Sunday, and mountains on special days."

Yuuta wrinkled his brow in thought. "True. Hey Aniki, stop using my room as storage space, will you? I actually want to use it when I come back home some times."

"Well, the space in the store room ran out…."

"But stuffed into my pillow cases? That's a bit over it, isn't it?"

"Shuusuke, you know so many girls!" Yumiko said excitedly. "Couldn't you introduce some to Yuuta?"

Fuji tilted his head in thought. "Well, there are these twins…"

"Sugoi! One for each of you!"

"They play tennis…."

"You already have something in common!"

"They're really pretty…"

"Of course, it's you two we're talking about…"

"They're from elementary school still."

Yuuta twitched.

"Ara…" Yumiko trailed off.

Fuji chuckled again. "They were really cute. I went out with one of them once. She was a nice girl."

"She was a young girl," Yuuta said through gritted teeth. "Aniki, you paedophile."

Fuji merely laughed. "She wasn't that young. And don't worry. She was the one who asked me. How could I turn her down?"

"Don't you know anybody from school, Shuusuke?"

"Sa…" Fuji gave it a thought. "The really cute ones are already taken."

"Maa…." Yumiko said, albeit disappointedly. "Shikatanai na."

"Demo!" Fuji suddenly interjected. "I know someone really cute, who's just your age Yuuta! She's not from Seigaku so you don't have to worry about anything."

Yuuta merely twitched and decided his dinner would make a better companion than his siblings. How they got around to discussing his love life, he had no idea.

"Hontou?" The eldest Fuji asked excitedly. "Dare dare?"

"Ne…" Yuuta interrupted, "shouldn't we be more worried about Nee-san, aniki? She's way older. Marriage isn't so far, you know. And you're still not serious about anybody yet."

The other two siblings exchanged a look, and laughed out loud.

Yuuta blinked. "Huh?"

"Nee-san must have forgotten to tell you," Fuji said when he was done laughing.

"Tell me what? …Masaka…you're already going steady with someone?" Yuuta's eyes widened, and he dropped his knife onto his plate.

"Iiya.." Yumiko blushed, and giggled. "Somewhat."

And she exchanged a look with Fuji again, and both started to laugh.

Yuuta felt a twitch coming, but his curiosity overwhelmed it. "Well? Aren't you going to tell me about it?"

"Umm…okay," Yumiko said albeit with difficulty. "But you have to promise me something."

Yuuta frowned. "What? Why?"

"Datte," the eldest Fuji sibling answered, "you might get shocked or something. You have to promise me that you will tell me what you think, and what you are going to do."

Yuuta felt a Bad Feeling surface somewhere in his stomach region. But again, curiosity overwhelmed him, and besides, it couldn't be that bad. It was probably some old ex she had renounced years ago.

"Mou" the Fuji daughter said, and turned to Fuji. "I don't know if I can say it. You say it."

"Yada," the second Fuji refused rather uncharacteristically.

"Nee-san, if you don't tell me right now, I'll put up your elementary school pictures on eBay-"

"Hai hai!" Yumiko acquiesced. "He's actually a friend of yours, Yuuta…"

Yuuta's eyebrows shot up. "Huh? What do you-"

"It's Hajime-kun!"

_xxxxxxxxx_

"Who was that?" Tachibana asked as he passed his sister who had just slammed the phone down.

An snarled. "Atobe-sama."

Tachibana wished he could sympathize, but he really found his sister's predicament amusing. Wooed with amazing regularity by at least one boy from almost every school in the region – Kamio, his own vice-captain, Atobe from the diva school, Kirihara all the way from Rikkaidai, and Momoshiro from Seigaku – it was just a matter of time before some candidates would spring up from the rest of the other schools.

"Mou!" An complained. "I changed my mobile number but he still calls the house – nii-chan, can we change the house number?"

Tachibana shrugged. "Ask our parents."

"Why won't he give up!" An, still fuming, followed her brother into the kitchen.

Tachibana opened the fridge and dug out a canned drink. "He's Atobe-sama."

"But I haven't paid the slightest bit of attention to him! What am I supposed to do?"

"Hmm," Tachibana opened his can and took a swig. "Maybe if you let him know that you're not available, he'll lay off," he commented jokingly. "Atobe-sama won't take leftovers."

He half-expected his little sister to retort that she loved being single.

"….Sugoi, onii-chan! You're a genius?"

Tachibana froze. "I … am?"

"You're right!" An said cheerfully. "There's no way Atobe will carry on if he thinks I'm attached. He'll see me as a cast-off and forget it. Although," she frowned, "I'm not too sure that I want to be seen that way…."

"Umm…" Tachibana edged out from the kitchen as casually as possible. "Well, uh, good luck to you."

When he was in the safety of his room, Tachibana sighed. Has he just done the unbelievable and put a potentially disastrous idea into his sister's head? Oh well. He wasn't going to interfere. Never. He had a lot of things to do, a tennis team to manage, high school entrance exams to worr-

"Ne, onii-chan, who do you think should pose as my boyfriend?"

Tachibana sighed again.

tsuzuku

A/N: gasp My first attempt to do something which actually isn't a one-shot, has a plot, and has chapters related to each other!

Well, actually this started out as a chapter for my Unrequited series, but for some weird reason, it morphed into this, and suddenly this plot thing just hit me on the head. Oh well, couldn't hurt to try eh?


	2. Episode 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis. I forgot to do this.**

**Disclaimer Two: I realized this plot might sound reminiscent of Yukuro's Deep Snow! Sorry about that! It was accidental, really! **

**Episode Two**

"Saa…." Fuji trailed off, a look of concern gracing his delicate features. "I didn't expect things to turn out this way."

Next to him, Fuji Yumiko shifted uncomfortably from where she was perched on her youngest brother's bed. "Did you think we went too far?" she asked anxiously.

Fuji frowned. "I suppose." He really hadn't expected Yuuta to dead faint away.

"I thought he would just, you know, yell at me, or exclaim at the ridiculousness of it," Yumiko said nervously. "I didn't know he would have such a violent physical reaction!"

"Neither did I."

"Although it's kinda true…" Yumiko trailed off. "Yuuta probably doesn't know, but ever since that day while you were playing in the finals, Mizuki's been hitting on me, remember."

Yuuta chose that moment to dramatically spring from his faint. "WHAT?"

"You're awake! Yokatta…" Fuji Yumiko drew closer to her brother, and Fuji joined her. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Am I feeling alright? You tell me you've gone steady with a guy I know, Mizuki-san no less, who's way way way younger than you….and you tell me he's been hitting on you all this while?" Yuuta's voice had gone to an unbelievably high pitch, which Fuji quite admired, since out of the two of them, Yuuta undeniably had the deepest voice.

"I thought only Aniki was the paedophile!"

Fuji decided he didn't quite admire that pitch of voice anymore.

"Mou, ochitsukeyou Yuuta!" Yumiko intercepted. "Gomen nasai, it was just a joke! I'm definitely not attached to Mizuki-san, you don't have to worry about that. Only the 'he's been hitting on me' part is true."

Yuuta was quiet for a while. "Even after the finals?"

"Yeah, even after. He called quite a number of times."

_Which I didn't appreciate, _Fuji added in his head silently. But he decided not to make his presence known at that particular point of time when Yuuta was looking rather murderous.

"Fine." Yuuta said in a clipped tone. "But play that kinda joke on me again, and I'm never coming home."

"We Promise," Yumiko said solemnly.

"Uhn," Fuji added helpfully.

"And I want strawberry shortcake."

"No problem!" Yumiko said rather gleefully, jumping right up. It was easy to seek forgiveness if you could make delicious things.

Yuuta threw his covers off and clambered after his sister. "I'm gonna watch TV."

"Ne, Yuuta," Fuji started. "I still think it would be nice if you had a girl-"

"Get lost, aniki."

_xxxxxx_

Tachibana tried not to sigh any further as his sister happily swung herself in his desk chair.

"Do you think Kamio-kun would agree?"

"No!" Tachibana interjected a little too quickly and forcefully. He cleared his throat. "I mean, Kamio actually likes you, you know. He might take it the wrong way. I don't think it's advisable."

"Heeeee…." An trailed off.

"And for that matter," Tachibana added, "do not ask Momoshiro, Kirihara or whoever else who actually likes you."

"Okay, okay," An gave in. "Momoshiro seemed like a good idea. You don't have to worry about Kirihara, though. I'd never want to have him involved!"

"It's not nice to bear grudges," Tachibana said patiently, although he hadn't quite resolved all negative feelings towards the Rikkai second year yet.

"He lives in Kanagawa anyway. It's too troublesome."

Tachibana sweatdropped.

"So…who should I ask?"

Tachibana held back another sigh. "Just anyone who's a good friend and who understands the situation. I don't know."

"Just anyone who's a good friend and who understands…." An furrowed her brows in deep concentration.

Then her eyes widened. "Yatta!" Excitedly, she jumped off the desk chair and plonked herself onto her brother's bed. "I've got it, I've got it!"

Tachibana tried to quell the growing Bad Feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"I'll ask Shinji-kun!"

"SHINJI?"

_xxxxxxxxx_

"Ne, Aniki."

Fuji turned to his brother, his eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise. They were watching television in the living room, with a plate of strawberry shortcake between them.

"Nani?"

"Anou…" Yuuta looked uncomfortable, "I was wondering about…you know. Mizuki-san and…Nee-san."

"Aaa."

"Did he really call a lot?"

Fuji frowned, trying to remember. "Yeah. Yumiko always mentioned it at dinner." He decided not to tell Yuuta that some of those times he had been the one to pick up, and had hung up almost as soon as he knew who it was.

"So..umm…" Yuuta fidgeted, "what'd he ask Nee-san?"

"Saaa…" Fuji tried to recall one of the Mizuki conversations he had had with his sister. "I think they just, talk. About stuff."

"You don't mind?"

Fuji shrugged. "It's Nee-san's life. She thinks he's nice enough." He decided not to tell Yuuta about some of the arguments he had had with Yumiko on the issue either, since they had resolved it anyway.

Yuuta found it weird, too, as he gave his brother a Look. "And you gave him such a hard time when he was with me."

"Well, that's different. You're my little brother, and I have to look out for you."

"So what's that make me, the maid that makes strawberry shortcakes?" Yumiko asked jokingly as she joined them.

"Exactly," Fuji agreed, not missing a beat.

"Don't worry about it, Yuuta," Yumiko tried to pacify her brother. "I am perfectly aware that he is Shuusuke's age, and that he is your schoolmate. I wouldn't go out with him, and besides, I just think of him as a friend. He can be really nice to talk to, you know."

Yuuta frowned. He decided he did not want to know in what way Mizuki could actually be nice to talk to. But as he contemplated it, he relaxed. It was true, even if Aniki refused to believe it. Deep down, Mizuki-san was a nice person.

He snuck a glance towards his aniki, who was trying to smile but admittedly it looked more like a grimace.

Oh well. Some things would never change.

"But you can't distract us from the main topic, Yuuta! Won't you meet with the nice girl Shuusuke was talking about?"

Yuuta twitched. Indeed, some things never changed.

_xxxxxx_

"Well, then you're going to ask him then," Tachibana said as calmly as he could.

"Hmmm…" An pursed up her lips. "Won't you ask him for me?"

"Nope."

"But…" Ann pleaded. "I don't have a chance to see him tomorrow all day, because I have tennis practice…by the time I end, he'll be gone. Onegaaaai?"

Tachibana shook his head firmly. "Nope."

_xxxxxxxx_

"Heeeee. So An-chan wants me to be her surrogate boyfriend?"

Tachibana gritted his teeth, mustered up whatever dignity he had left and nodded.

"Hmm. It seems interesting. But why? Is she trying to say something? This could get messy. I mean, Kamio-kun would kill me. I could explain to him, but he could still get angry. Is An doing it because of Kamio? Is she trying to make him jealous? You only have surrogate boyfriends if you're trying to make someone jealous. Well I sure hope it's Kamio and not that spiky haired person from Seigaku. They're such a troublesome lot. An should stay away from them. And that Hyotei guy too. He's crazy."

Tachibana sighed. He walked away.

_xxxxxxx_

"Nani? You're trying to match make your otouto with someone?"

Fuji nodded serenely.

"Yuuta agrees?"

"Umm…nope."

"Great! So with who, nya?"

"Hi-mi-tsu."

"Mou, Fujiko…."

tsuzuku.

**A/N: Oh yeah! I've always wanted to return to my self-created soap opera genre. It feels good, yeah! I've never said this before, but reviews make me feel good too! It'd be great if you'd tell me what you think! Even better if you give me some ideas! Thanks for reading!**

**And thanks for reviewing the first episode, yamatoforever, ichigo, Saico, shikaruTo, Evening Lilacs, and ennoy!**

**To yamatoforever: Oh man. You're good. Or maybe the plot's predictable…but I'll try to make this as humourous as possible!**


	3. Episode 3

Chapter 3

Tachibana Kippei looked at his watch.

Five more minutes to go.

His stomach, which had been in a state of queasiness ever since a certain blue-eyed Seigaku tensai had called him, started doing the samba.

As much as he tried to push it to the back of his head, his mind started wandering as to why Fuji Shuusuke had asked to meet him at a nearby café that evening.

The logical part of his brain told him that it probably had to do with tennis, or school, or something. Even if Fuji wasn't the buchou of the Seigaku team, maybe Tezuka had sent him as a representative. Maybe he couldn't make it.

A not-so-logical part of his brain wondered whether it could be something personal, like Kirihara, or his sister, or something.

An even more illogical part of his brain wondered if Fuji was asking –

_Nope_, he told his brain firmly. _We are not going there. No way._

"Tachibana-san?"

Tachibana gave a start. He hadn't noticed the tensai approach the table where he was sitting.

"Gomen, did I surprise you?" Fuji asked, smiling easily as he slid into the seat opposite Tachibana.

Tachibana gave a small smile, and a nod.

"Have you eaten yet?" Fuji asked politely, and picked up the menu. "I'm kind of starving…."

"Let's order then," Tachibana said, thinking that for all his feminine looks and soft-spoken-ness, Fuji had no reservations about flaunting his appetite.

They ordered, and the table fell silent after the waiter had walked away.

Tachibana felt uncomfortable, and so broke the ice. "So. What did you want to talk to me about anyway?" he asked. He'd wanted to know anyway.

"Umm…." Fuji frowned, then smiled, looking out the window. "I'm sorry for asking to meet you at such short notice. I hope I haven't inconvenienced you. It's kind of trivial, really."

Tachibana quelled the thought that it didn't matter how trivial it was if it was Fuji he was meeting

_In fact, the more trivial, the better. Whoa. We're not going there._

"That's alright," he answered, wanting to dispel the auburn-haired boy's misgivings. "It's been a long time since I hung out with anyone anyway."

Fuji chuckled. "It's nice to know that you don't mind hanging out with me."

They shared a smile, and Tachibana wondered if he was dreaming.

"Anyway," Fuji began, "I'm sort of….on a mission. I just need to know some things from you."

Tachibana raised an eyebrow. "Shoot."

"Okay," Fuji looked at him, his eyes closed, but his expression serious. "Is your sister going out with anyone?"

_xxxxxxx_

"Tadaima."

"Onii-chan, okaeri," An appeared in the hallway to greet him. "You're out late. Where've you been? I've been home ages. I was about to call someone from the tennis team."

"I just went out for a while," Tachibana answered vaguely, removing his shoes and putting his stuff down.

"Eeeh? Girlfriend?" An joked. "You dark horse you."

"No!" Tachibana protested, blushing and trying to push all thoughts of beautiful blue eyes out of his head. "An old friend."

"Yeah, right," An teased, following him upstairs. "That's what they all say."

"It was Fuji, okay?" Tachibana said, knowing she would never let it rest until he gave her a name.

"Oh." Her face fell, then brightened. "So did you tell Shinji?"

Tachibana sighed. "I did, but I don't know what he was mumbling about. You better call him up and ask him yourself."

"Aww…" An said disappointedly. "Okay then." She turned to leave.

"Hey, An," Tachibana suddenly spoke. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Surprised, the brunette turned. "What?"

"Won't you drop this whole surrogate boyfriend deal?" Tachibana asked, hoping against hope.

"Nope," she shook her head obstinately, "I wanna rub it in that arrogant diva's face that I'm taken. Otherwise it just won't be as satisfying."

"Then," Tachibana interjected, "maybe I have a better alternative to this whole deal, or at the very least, to Shinji."

"Hmm?"

Just then, An's mobile rang.

"Ah, gomen, matte ne," and she was gone.

Tachibana used the next few minutes to choose his words carefully. He wasn't adverse to Fuji's proposal. In fact, he quite liked it, because it sure was better than this whole surrogate boyfriend mess where a lot of people could get hurt. Tachibana was always one for honesty.

He just had to make sure his sister could see that his alternative was a better option.

An returned barely a minute later, making a face.

"That was Shinji," she announced. Tachibana wondered how she managed to pull off hanging up.

"He called to say he refuses."

Tachibana wanted to laugh, but he kept a straight face and looked questioningly at his sister.

"He said he's very honoured, but he doesn't think he can't handle the onslaught from Kamio-kun that's sure to come."

Tachibana heaved an inward sigh of relief.

"Of course, he said it in a lot more words than that."

"He was a bad idea from the start," Tachibana commented. "With him being so close to Kamio and all that."

"So what's your great idea?" An asked.

"Well…." Tachibana chose his words carefully. "Instead of getting a fake boyfriend, why not go out with someone for real?"

An frowned. "Wait, you're telling me to get attached for real? But I like my singlehood!"

"Think about it," Tachibana interrupted. "You don't have to declare your engagement or anything. Just…go out with him. When Atobe calls, you can tell him that you're seeing someone, and he can jump to his own conclusions himself, without you actually telling him that you're not officially attached. You know."

An contemplated it.

"Besides, what's the harm?" Tachibana asked. "Maybe it's time you started expanding your social circle. Not that I'm saying that it's not big enough, but I think you should give this person a try."

"Heee…you're actually recommending someone to me?" An giggled. "I feel like I'm being match made."

_Technically, you are, _Tachibana thought, but he decided not to make it obvious. "What do you think? It won't do any harm."

"Hmm…" An thought. "But what if this person is serious about me? And if I don't like him right from the very beginning….he's going to get hurt, isn't he?"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," her brother reassured her. "He doesn't know you that well, and therefore he's just like you. Just…expanding his social circle, to put it nicely. You don't have to worry about whether he has this big crush on you or anything."

"Okay…doesn't seem too bad," An ceded, "pretty non-committal, which is good I guess."

"So you'll agree to go out with him?" Tachibana asked.

An shrugged. "Why not? It fulfills my purpose, and anyway, since you say he's worth a try, I guess I could give it a shot."

Tachibana grinned rather uncharacteristically. "Great! So here's where you'll meet him this Friday…"

_xxxxxxxx_

"NO WAY! NO ABSOLUTELY BLOODY WAY!"

"Come on Yuuta, it's just Tachibana An, she's a really cute and nice person!"

"HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF HOW MORTIFYING IT IS TO BE MADE TO GO ON DATES BY YOUR ELDER BROTHER?"

"I don't have one. ..Wait, Yuuta, I-" Fuji met a door slamming into his face.

"I already promised her!" he called out.

"WELL, UN-PROMISE HER!" It was surprising how loud Yuuta's voice could still be from behind a closed door.

"I can't do that, she'll be disappointed…she was looking forward to it…." Okay, so he was telling a few white lies. But it was worth the result he hoped he would get. "Please? I promise never to pester you again. Ever. I promise on my digital camera."

He was met with silence.

"And my jazz CDs."

"….Never?"

Fuji crossed his fingers. "Never," he affirmed.

"I'll burn your CDs if you break your promise."

Fuji balked slightly at such displayed violence. "Okay," he ceded.

_xxxxxxxxxx_

"So how's it going?"

"He agreed. It was a lot harder than I thought…"

"Your otouto has always been so stubborn nya…"

"Nn. Sort of."

"Can we go spy of them nya?"

"I …don't think that's a good idea, Eiji…"

tsuzuku

A/N: I just had to do these mini dialogues at the end. Anyway, thank you to all my reviewers! I love you, because there is nothing like reading a review when you come back drained from lectures….you guys brighten my day!

**Craziwidder: **Kyoudai means 'siblings', and 'ai' means…hahaha….yeah, everybody knows it, 'love'. You have just uncovered how lame my title is. Bwahaha.

**Aeolus the Soul Hunter: **Are you kidding? Those TachibanaFuji vibes were like, my main source of inspiration. I saw them and I was like 'I gotta do a Fujibana one day' and here it is! Hehehehehe.

And to **xxxlemonsxxx, ennoy, dream-angel114 – **Thanks a million! You people keep me going!


	4. Episode 4

Yuuta looked at his watch.

She wasn't late, but he was nervous. He couldn't just stay still like a statue while waiting for his date to turn up. It was too unnatural. He would have paced, but that would have made him look like he was in trouble, or something.

_Never again,_ he thought resolutely. _Even if Aniki bribes me with a million things, never again shall I be forced to go out with anybody. _

_Even if said person happens to be nice, and cute, and good at tennis…._

"Fuji-san!"

The clear voice shook him out of his fantasies of violence towards his older brother, and he spotted the brunette gaily waving at him as she walked briskly up the sidewalk towards him.

He smiled, although he felt it rather unnatural. _She looks as if she actually doesn't mind._

"Sorry to keep you waiting," An said apologetically.

"It's okay, you're not late," Yuuta assured her. "Umm….let's go in, then."

"Okay!"

The café that they'd chosen (or rather, Fuji had chosen) was small, but welcoming. There were booths set up as well as seats along a bar. Yuuta and An chose a booth in the middle of the room (or rather, Yuuta had led An to a booth where they couldn't easily be seen from outside. He couldn't live it down if his friends knew he'd just been match made. Ugh. As if he was so desperate.)

"I've never been here before…" An said as she picked up the menu on the table.

"Umm, me neither," Yuuta said to keep the conversation going. "But I'm rarely here, so…."

"Hey, yeah," An picked up enthusiastically. "You live in a dorm, right? I've never known someone who lived in a dorm….or I do, but I don't know them well. Is it the holidays or something? How come you're home?"

And as the date progressed, Yuuta found that really, there was nothing to worry about.

Except for the risk that he might get seen, of course.

_Xxxxxxx_

"Dan-kun, it's so nice to see you again!" Akutsu's mother greeted the short boy enthusiastically. "Do bring Dan-kun along more often, Jin. It's nice to know that you're making friends!"

Akutsu growled. "I didn't bring him. He tagged along. There's a shit of a difference there."

"Konnichiwa desu, Akutsu-san!" Dan Taichi greeted her cheerfully.

"Well, what would you guys like?"

"The usual."

"Hai, desu!"

Dan Taichi was happy. He'd had a great practice with the ichinen trio the day before, and this was just a treat after the hard work he'd put in. He enjoyed coming here with Akutsu-senpai, especially ever since they had fixed the air-conditioning. He stretched appreciatively, twisting his head this way and that-

"Eh?"

Akutsu ignored him as he usually did.

"Those two are familiar! Look, Akutsu-senpai! I think I've seen them before somewhere….Do you know them, Akutsu-senpai?"

Akutsu grunted.

"That's the St. Rudolph uniform isn't it? But….I'm not so sure about the other girl's uniform though. I don't know anything about girls' uniforms…desu…."

Akutsu slumped and started to snore.

"It's not the Seigaku uniform, I remember their uniforms were green and white with that really ugly pink bow, desu…this uniform's kinda nice, desu…"

"Here you go! Jin, wake up."

"Ne, Akutsu-san," Dan didn't know why, but that guy looked so familiar and he just had to know who he was, desu! "Can you see the guy and the girl sitting in the booth at the centre of the café desu?"

She looked. "Oh, you mean those two? Yeah, they just walked in a few minutes before you did. Do you know them, Dan-kun?"

"I just feel like I've seen them somewhere before, desu. Do they often come here desu?"

"Umm…no, I think this is the first time I've seen them. But I know the girl's uniform though, I remember it because we have a regular from the same school, and their uniform's just so cute! It's the Fudoumine uniform."

"Fudoumine?"

"Don't you remember anything? That kid is the brother of that Seigaku player. The triple counter guy," Jin growled as he ate. Really. Conversations were annoying.

"AAAHH! Sou desu! Now I remember who he is!"

"Good, now shut up and start eating," Jin grumbled. Really.

"Sasuga Akutsu-senpai! Now if I can only put my finger on who the girl is, desu…"

Akutsu rolled his eyes. "She's the kid sister of the Fudoumine captain. Really, and you call yourself the Yamabuki manager?" Now, maybe that annoying prick would just shut up.

"Oh RIGHT! That's who she is! Hey…do you think….do you think…" Dan's face had taken on a tinge of red… "they're on a DATE?"

Akutsu ignored him.

_Xxxxxxxx_

"Actually, there's something I need to be clear with you about," An suddenly said in the middle of their meal.

"Mmpf?" Yuuta chewed and swallowed. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Well…" An laughed uncomfortably and twisted her fork uncomfortably. "I hope this doesn't come off as sounding weird or anything….although it probably will, but….you see, I sort of….need your help, really, on something."

"Oh. Okay." Yuuta wasn't sure where this was going, but no doubt he would be finding out soon.

"What exactly did Fuji-san say to you? About…me?" she abruptly asked.

Yuuta frowned, trying to remember exactly what his aniki had said.

"Well, actually, he's been going on and on about me not….meeting enough girls or something…" Never mind that it was actually meeting NO girls. "So he said he wanted to introduce to me someone. No commitment, just…you know. To give it a shot or something."

An nodded. "Okay."

"What did your brother say to you?" Yuuta asked, part politeness, part curiosity.

"Well, actually…." An twisted uncomfortably in her seat, "it's like this. Do you know Atobe-sam – I mean, Atobe Keigo from Hyoutei?"

"Yeah, I know him," Yuuta nodded. "Who doesn't?"

"Yeah. Well….I don't know how to say this without sounding arrogant, but…" An paused hesitantly, and pushed on. "he's been sorta, you know, hitting on me for a while."

Yuuta grimaced upon hearing that particular phrase, thoughts of Mizuki-san and his sister suddenly surfacing, but did not interrupt.

"So…I've been trying to throw him off for a while, but he's persistent."

"Mm-hmm," Yuuta responded as he shoved another bit of sandwich into his mouth.

"So it was like, so totally sudden, but onii-chan had this idea that I should look for a surrogate boyfriend…."

_Xxxxxxxx_

Tachibana sneezed violently. Hmm. Maybe the air-conditioning was too cold.

As he got up to adjust it, his mobile phone rang.

Changing direction, he made to his desk and looked at the blinking LCD screen.

_Fuji._

His heart did a little jump, skip, and decided to attempt suicide by jumping to his throat.

Tachibana swallowed. "Moshi moshi," he answered.

"Tachibana-san. Umm…am I interrupting anything?"

Thoughts of the next day's Japanese history test flew out of his mind. "No, no, not at all," he answered.

"Okay. That's good. …..Um, really?"

"….Yah."

There was an uncomfortable silence. Then Fuji spoke.

"Do you think they're alright?"

Tachibana sweatdropped. "Um…yeah."

"Okay."

"…."

"Shall we go look at how they're doing?"

Tachibana blinked. "Well….that is….I mean…."

"I mean, I just want to make sure Yuuta's okay. An is a natural at this, but Yuuta….well, he's never gone out with a girl before, and I …..just don't want this to….you know…. bomb."

Tachibana decided that this brotherly side of Fuji was quite surprising (and endearing) even if it was a little bit…well….intruder-ish.

"I'm sure it won't bomb," Tachibana reasoned. "I mean, they're two nice people who're out to have a meal. Nothing bad can possibly happen."

"Okay."

"They have lots of stuff in common. I'm sure they're enjoying themselves."

"Sou ne."

"But…" Tachibana tried to quell the little voice taunting him in his head, "if you wanted to, we could always…"

_Xxxxxxxx_

"Tadaima!"

Tachibana jerked himself awake. He had, unbeknownst to himself, fallen asleep on a stack of Japanese history notes.

Damn. He had not wanted that particular dream to end.

Pushing all thoughts of a dream concerning a certain blue-eyed Seigaku third-year tennis prodigy, he got up and poked his head out of his room. "Okaeri, An."

An grinned at him, stopping at the landing that separated their rooms.

"So?" Tachibana asked.

"It was nice," An said airily, and stepping into her room, closed the door.

Tachibana smiled to himself. "Yokatta," he said to the door. He wasn't one to press for details. It was good enough to know that the date hadn't ….bombed.

Tachibana shook his head. Really, he had to get a grip on himself nowadays.

_Xxxxxx_

Yuuta opened the door slo-o-o-wly. The house was still. There were no sounds emanating from either the TV room or the kitchen.Good.

He entered the house and painstakingly shut the door as silently as possible.

When the latch clicked shut, Yuuta paused, bracing himself for any sudden appearance of his brother or sister.

When it remained silent, he heaved a sigh of relief and proceeded to tiptoe upstairs.

_Safe, _he thought triumphantly to himself as he made it to his bedroom door.

"So how did it go?"

Yuuta jumped in shock and glared at his aniki who was grinning at him, his head poking out from his bedroom doorway. It was just plain eerie, that grin.

Yuuta paused, as though contemplating what to say to his brother.

"Well…."

Fuji's features brightened in anticipation.

"…you promised not to pester me, so one more word and you can kiss your jazz CDs goodbye," Yuuta deadpanned, and stepped into his room, closing the door.

Fuji's face fell. Not wanting to risk his jazz CDs, he retreated into his room.

His gaze fell upon a couple of tickets lying innocently on his desk.

Tsuzuku.

A/N: Okay, so it was a lame attempt at a cliffie, because I am sure every single person out there knows exactly what it is Fuji is going to do. He is going to ask Tachibana out!

That was an even lamer attempt to throw you guys off track.

But anyways! I've had a lot of difficulty writing this! There were so many ways it could go – I had written out a whole Fujibana scene before deciding it was too early – and Eiji ended up somewhere, but I decided that could wait – I even had this corny brotherly fluff going on before deciding that Yuuta was a lot less cornier than that – review, please?


	5. Episode 5

"Ohayou."

"Ohayou, Yuuta." Yumiko turned to smile at her younger brother as he entered the kitchen and dropped himself into a chair. "You just missed Shuusuke."

"Mmnh," Yuuta grunted. He was not really sorry. After all, it wasn't as if he was leaving for life. And he could do without his brother's teasing and god-knows-what.

Yumiko set down breakfast in front of him. "Here you go."

Yuuta enthusiastically tucked in. There was nothing like a breakfast prepared by his eldest sister. St. Rudolph's food was not bad, but – there were many things that he still appreciated about home.

"Here," Yumiko handed him a pristine white envelope. "This is for you."

"The mail?" Yuuta mumbled as he chewed.

"Iie. From Shuusuke."

Yuuta looked warily at the envelope as if it contained Anthrax. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Yumiko said apologetically. "Shuusuke just asked me to be sure to give it to you before you left for the dorm since he couldn't catch you before he left for school."

Yuuta took the white envelope, feeling something slightly thicker than paper inside. Shoving a particularly huge piece of egg and toast into his mouth, he set down his knife and fork and opened the envelope, taking out its contents.

Yumiko peered over his shoulder. "Tickets to the Jazz Concert at the Tokyo Music Hall. Ooh. Shuusuke's been wanting to go to that for a while."

Yuuta frowned. "Exactly. Why's he giving this to me?" He peered into the envelope and withdrew a small piece of paper filled with his brother's neat handwriting.

_Yuuta,_

_I thought I'd help you out with your second date, so please use the tickets. I'd feel really happy if you would take An with you to the jazz concert. Have fun._

_Aniki_

Yuuta scowled. "Ugh, why is Aniki always dictating my life?" he grumbled.

Yumiko smiled. "He's just trying his best to be an older brother even though you don't technically live under the same roof. Shuusuke worries about you all the time, you know."

Yuuta sighed. "I know. But really, nee-san. I'm old enough to look after myself. I've been living in a dorm and I don't know if he's noticed, but I haven't died, you know."

Yumiko giggled. "You exaggerate. Anyway, look at it this way. Fuji's hoping you'll go on a second date so much that he's willing to give up something he loves for you. I think you should show him your thanks by going."

"I don't even like jazz," Yuuta grumbled.

"Those tickets cost a bomb," Yumiko added.

"Okay, okay," Yuuta relented. "But really, onee-san. Aniki didn't have to do this, you know."

Yumiko raised an eyebrow. "Am I deduce from that remark that you would have asked Tachibana-san of your own accord?"

Yuuta blushed slightly. "Well…uh…yeah!"

Yumiko laughed. "Right. Speaking of which, you haven't told me anything about your date. You're so cruel Yuuta. Purposely holding back on your brother."

Yuuta shrugged. "If I told him anything, he'd probably be encouraged to do similar things in the future. There's no way I'm gonna encourage him in that direction."

"Tell me, then," Yumiko implored. "I won't tell Shuusuke a thing."

"Yeah right."

"Okay, I'll tell him to stop involving you in any matchmaking schemes, okay. Come on, Yuuta, please?"

Yuuta grudgingly bit his toast. "She's a nice girl."

Yumiko clasped her hands together and smiled happily. "Yokatta! So do you like her?"

"Well, yeah, of course, she's a nice person. Everyone likes her. Don't get ideas, onee-san. We're not serious or anything, remember."

"Well, these things take time," Yumiko said with the air of one who knew it all.

"I'm actually helping her out, sort of," Yuuta added.

"Huh?"

"She's trying to fend off this guy who's chasing relentlessly after her. That's why she actually agreed to this whole thing. I agreed to help her get this guy off her back."

"Sou…that sounds interesting. Who's the guy?"

_Xxxxxx_

Atobe Keigo sneezed, much to his utter disgust. As far as he knew, he had been perfectly fine in the morning.

"Sick, Atobe?" Oshitari drawled as he walked past the Hyoutei buchou in the changing room.

"Ch'," the diva said lengthily.

"See you guys," Shishido said shortly as he walked past them, being the first to finish changing.

Akutagawa Jirou slouched past Shishido, sleep and drool still evident on his face. Apparently the second years had just been successful in waking him up from where he had been sprawled under a bench snoring away.

"Oi, Jirou," Mukahi remarked from where he was changing. "No practice this Friday afternoon."

"Eh? Hontou?" Jirou asked sleepily, and Atobe wondered why he allowed such blatant ignorance on his regulars' team. After all that effort he spent every day making announcements.

"Yeah. Atobe didn't say why, though. Something up, Atobe?"

Atobe hmphed. "Think of it as a present from Ore-sama."

Oshitari barely concealed a snort which Atobe ignored graciously by breezing out of the room.

_Xxxxxxxx_

Tachibana Kippei did not mind his sister hanging around during practices. She helped manage the team, after all.

But really, sometimes, he wished she wouldn't insist on making her presence. It was just that sometimes her presence distracted one of his best players.

"Really. Kamio should stop moping already. He should give up on her."

Tachibana tuned out Shinji's mumble and wished fervently that An would just take a hint and leave practice, because if she didn't, he didn't think there was much point in continuing practice anymore.

"_Onii-chan! Fuji-san asked me out again!"_

_Tachibana smiled at his sister – before he realized that seconds ago, he had been talking with one Kamio Akira._

_Ignoring, or perhaps oblivious, to the vice-captain's presence, An happily proceeded to tell him that Fuji Shuusuke had given his brother tickets to a jazz concert and that said brother had asked her along._

_Tachibana tried to resolutely ignore the crumpled form of his vice-captain, but…._

For once, Tachibana could not wait for practice to end.

_Xxxxxxxx_

"Ne ne, how's it going nya Fuji? Are they an item already? How many dates have they gone to?"

Fuji smiled as he and Eiji rallied the ball. "Slow down, Eiji. They've only been on one date so far. I think it's a success, since Yuuta hasn't attempted to kill me yet."

Eiji made a face. "Your otouto can be scary when he makes that angry face-" Eiji imitated what he thought was a good impression of said brother-"I wouldn't want to get on his wrong side nya."

"Uhn."

"But what about Momo nya? He likes her doesn't he?"

"Ahh…"

"What? Did you say my name, Eiji-senpai? What do I like?"

Fuji's eyes widened. "No, Eiji-"

But Eiji, not paying attention, or oblivious, plunged on. "Tachibana no imouto nya! Don't you like her, Momo-chin?"

Next to Fuji, Echizen Ryoma who was rallying the ball with Momoshiro at the next court barely hid a smirk.

"E-eh! What are you talking about, Eiji-senpai?"

"Oh, you don't like her? Great, nya! So you won't mind if she goes out with Fuji no otouto nya!"

"Haa? She's what?" Momoshiro dropped his racket in shock, and a ball hit by Echizen promptly hit him on the head. "Ow!"

Fuji counted silently in his head.

_Three…two….one…_

"Fuji, Eiji, Echizen, Momo! Twenty laps!"

_Xxxxxxxx_

"Gomen…"An apologized, her pretty features drawn into a worried frown. "I didn't realize it. I won't do it anymore."

Tachibana sighed. "It's okay. I think Kamio'll get over it. You have to be more careful, An, or you'll be breaking many more hearts."

An giggled. "Well, there is one heart that I'm really aiming to break."

"I'm glad that you're going out with Fuji-san again, though," Tachibana commented. "Seems like things are going really well."

"Yeah," An said happily. "I might end up falling for him, though. He's such a nice guy. And when he smiles, he looks so cute, too."

Tachibana looked at his sister, wondering if she was joking. Noticing her brother's serious expression, An broke out into laughter. "Daijoubu onii-chan. I'm kidding. I really like my singlehood. Unless something really happens, I doubt I'll be getting hitched anytime soon."

Tachibana shrugged. "I don't mind, really."

"I'm really looking forward to Friday though," An continued brightly. "I've never been to a posh concert hall like this one before. It'll be fun, even if I'm not into jazz."

"Is he into jazz, then?"

"Nope," An shook her head. "Apparently Fuji-san – the older one – got the tickets for himself, and decided to give them to us. It's really nice of him. Yuuta-san told me that Fuji-san really wanted to go to the concert."

"Mm.." Tachibana commented. "That's rather selfless of him."

He drifted off into his own thoughts, only to shake himself back to reality when he realized his sister was giving him a rather strange look.

"What?" he asked.

An fixed him with a Look. "Nothing…" she said in a tone that suggested quite the opposite. However, she did not say anything, much to Tachibana's relief.

_Xxxxxxxxx_

"Eeeee! Why can't you go with us this Friday da ne? But we always go bowling on Friday nights da ne!"

"…I just can't! I have to…go somewhere, alright?"

"Oooooh. I get it!"

"…what."

"Our Yuuta-kun's going on a date da ne!"

Yuuta choked.

"Who's going a date?"

"Ahahahaha, Atsushi! Our Yuuta's growing up to be a manly man!"

"What's this I hear about a manly man?"

"Mizuki! Perfect timing!"

"Yuuta's going on a date, you say?"

"Yeah, isn't it sweet? Our Yuuta-kun has a girlfriend da ne."

"Eeeh? Who has a girlfriend?"

"Oooh, Nomura da ne! Come in da ne!"

It took all of his willpower to remember that murder was punishable by law. Really.

Tsu.Zu.Ku.

A/N: See? I promised you that once my hectic hell weeks are over I can update fast. Anyway, quite a bit has been written out….just last minute changes here and there. But I liked this chapter so this one is in its orginal.

I'm feeling a bit guilty. I screamed at my cousins very very insanely because they played around and wouldn't find the little hat my mom knit for my Baby Tigger. And I mean scream. Me screaming is very, very scary, even to me.

But seriously, who cares. I shall cheer myself up by posting this. I forgot to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, which was pretty a lot.

Everybody told me they loved it, thank you thank you. I'm really lucky that I've never been flamed in my whole life as a fanfic writer. Even my friends who write better than me get flames. So thanks **litena, Aeolus the Soul Hunter, yamatoforever**, **KaitouYumekiri, kekemapa, ennoy, Ashley, xxlemonsxx**, and **Goggelgirl** for reviewing Chapter 3.

And for Chapter 4, thanks **Kei, Goggelgirl** and **ennoy. Yamatoforever** – which way it is, I ain't gonna tell you. Does it really look like Fujibana to you? Heh heh. I'm not gonna say anything .


	6. Episode 6

"Calm down," Tachibana commented as he watched his sister proceed to thrash her room in an attempt to make herself look suitable for a formal jazz concert.

"I've only got twenty minutes!" she yelled rather uncharacteristically.

"But you look fine," Tachibana tried.

"I look too old!"

"You don't. Really. That is a really nice gown."

"You're saying it just to get me off your back!"

Tachibana would have replied, but the door bell rang.

"ARRRGGHH!" Tachibana An screamed.

Tachibana wanted to laugh. He had never seen his sister this messed up. It was rather sadistic, but still funny to watch all the same.

"Onii-chan.." An turned to him desperately. "Hold him off! Somehow!"

"Hai, hai." He never thought it, but apparently even a social butterfly like An suffered from date jibbers.

"Konbanwa," one Fuji Yuuta greeted him politely.

Tachibana smiled and invited him in. "If you'd come in for a moment? An is not quite ready yet."

"Ah, that's okay," Yuuta smiled. "I came a bit too early anyway."

"Onii-chan…" An's voice drifted in from her bedroom.

Tachibana gestured him to the living room and apologetically excused himself, speeding upstairs.

He smiled at his little sister who was sitting forlornly on her bed, wearing a simple dark blue evening dress.

"I can't pull off formal wear…" she said gloomily.

Tachibana shrugged. "You think Fuji-san will care?"

An thought about it. "Well. You're right, he's not a shallow guy."

"Yep," Tachibana picked up from where she left off, "and anyway, you spent an hour getting ready, you might as well just give it a shot. What's the use dithering?"

"Yeah!" A look of determination crept onto her face, and she stood up. "Ja, ikimasu."

And with that, she strode purposefully out the door.

Tachibana sighed at the mess, and went after her.

_xxxxx_

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Yuuta turned and smiled. He felt his stomach dance a bit. Oh well, couldn't be helped. Tachibana An was really cute.

"It's okay. Shall we go?"

An nodded and smiled, although it looked a little like a grimace.

Tachibana saw them to the waiting cab, and waved as the cab drove off.

_xxxxxx_

Yuuta felt compelled to break the tension somehow. He wondered why he hadn't felt like this on their first date. He felt uncomfortable and nervous. It was the formality of the occasion; it had to be. He had never gone to such performances before.

"Anou.."

"Ne…"

They both paused, and laughed.

"You look nice," Yuuta told her An honestly.

A huge grin spread across her face. "Thanks. So do you."

"I've never done this before," Yuuta admitted. "I don't know how to do formal concerts and stuff.

"Neither do I," An admitted. "But it's okay, we'll get through somehow!"

Yuuta laughed. Her enthusiasm was contagious, if anything.

_xxxxxx_

Tachibana contemplated clearing up the mess that his sister had left behind.

But after staring at the indescribable state of the room for five full seconds, he gave it up as a bad job and shut the door.

Aimlessly, he strolled around the house, picking up stray magazines off the floor, arranging the newspapers, the glasses, the flowers – it was pretty quiet. He wondered what time his parents would come home. Oh well.

On a whim, he grabbed a coat, his keys, his phone and his wallet and headed out.

_xxxxxxx_

"I can't believe I got so worked up trying to get ready for this. No wait, actually, I can," An capitulated on her statement. "I didn't want to embarrass you. Heh."

"Nah, doesn't matter. I don't think you'd embarrass me either way. Actually, I was going to walk out of the house wearing a polo shirt and jeans, but my sister stopped me and forced me into this instead."

An giggled.

"I mean, seriously, how was I supposed to have a clue? Only Nee-san and Aniki ever go to this kind of thing. The most formal thing I went to was my parents' bash for the tenth anniversary of the company, and I was wearing a babysuit then," Yuuta grumbled.

"For such well-to-do people, you and Fuji-san aren't arrogant at all," An commented, still giggling at his previous remarks.

Yuuta shrugged. "We're okay I guess, but we don't own a small country or anything. Besides, we went to normal schools and stuff, so…yeah….at least, I hope we're not arrogant."

"Trust me, you're not. At least you don't go around telling people to be awed by your prowess."

Yuuta had to laugh. "Atobe Keigo is in a different league."

"Yeah, Atobe…." An suddenly drifted off.

"Yeah, Atobe what?"

"No, I mean, it's Atobe! Look!"

Yuuta looked out the window on his side, and sure enough, they were approaching the concert hall, and he could see the one Atobe Keigo step out from a pristine white limousine.

_xxxxxxx_

Something made Tachibana Kippei stop in front of the CD shop.

_Yuuta-san told me that Fuji-san really wanted to go to the concert._

Jazz, huh?

Tachibana went in and headed to the Jazz section.

_xxxxxx_

"Wait, don't get out yet, let me do this properly," Yuuta told An, and promptly rushed out his side of the cab to open the door on An's side. "My sister made me promise. She said it was only proper. I swear I'm not a male chauvinist pig."

An giggled. "I know you're not. It's very gentlemanly. Thank you." She stepped out of the cab and grinned at Yuuta. "So your sis wants us to do it properly, eh?" She promptly took hold of his arm. "Okay, let's go!"

Laughing to hide the flush on his cheeks, Yuuta escorted her to the queue forming outside the entrance hall.

"Here, let me find the tickets," Yuuta told her, and she let go of his arm for him to dig around in his jacket.

"I didn't know you would be here, Tachibana-san," drawled an unwelcome voice. Yuuta felt An stiffen next to him, and he looked up, hand still digging around in his coat pockets. "Pleasure to see you."

"I'm afraid I can't say quite exactly the same," An replied coolly.

"So this is your escort?" Yuuta felt his eyebrow twitch as Atobe Keigo looked him up and down. But something else was bothering him much more then a stupid Atobe Keigo.

He couldn't find the damn tickets.

_xxxxxxx_

"Need a recommendation?"

Tachibana jumped, startled. "Oh, it's you," he voiced out, his senses taking in one smiling blue-eyed tensai.

"Yep, it's me. All alone on a Friday night."

"I heard you gave away tickets to a jazz concert so your brother could go out with my sister again. That was nice."

"I thought it would be nice for them to go out again together. I was afraid Yuuta wouldn't take the initiative. Was An looking forward to it?"

"Yeah, very much. She took an hour to get ready, freaked out when your brother rang the doorbell, but strangely enough she recovered pretty fast. I think she seems to like your brother a lot. She likes hanging out with him, definitely."

"Heh. Yuuta won't tell me anything. I think that's a good sign. By the way," the tensai nodded in the direction of the CD racks, "Ono Lisa's good."

"Oh?" Tachibana directed his attention back to the racks. "I guess it's worth a try, then."

He picked up the CD and headed to the cashier.

"Didn't know you were into jazz."

"I just listen to whatever's good, really," Tachibana admitted. "No particular preference of any genre."

"Aa. Okay."

"Running errands?" Tachibana asked, since Fuji hadn't bought a single CD.

"Yeah. I was just walking past the shop when I saw you, so I thought I'd say hi."

"Oh. I see." Tachibana wished he was more of a conversation-maker at that point.

The cashier handed him his CD, and they turned to leave the shop.

They stood for awhile outside. "Guess I better go," Fuji said. "I'm heading there."

Tachibana wanted very badly to offer his company. But somehow, something held him back. "Okay. Guess I better go too."

"Enjoy that CD," and he was gone.

Tachibana stared at the retreating auburn-haired head for a few seconds, before he turned to go.

_xxxxxx_

They were inching closer and closer to the entrance of the hall.

Yuuta had searched every inch of his jacket.

The tickets were not there.

"Yuuta-san?" An asked him enquiringly.

Grimacing and turning red, but seeing no other way, Yuuta leaned down towards An's ear. "I think I dropped the damn tickets somewhere."

An's eyes widened. "Oh. What shall we do?"

"Maybe we should get out of this queue first," he whispered.

"Okay," she whispered back, and they both stepped out of the line, much to Atobe's surprise and consternation, since An had surreptitiously ignored every sentence he had uttered to her, choosing to whisper instead to whoever that wimp of an escort of hers was.

Not missing a beat, Atobe joined them. Taking a hint from Yuuta's flushed face, he smirked. "Am I to deduce that you lost your tickets, _sir_?"

An glared at him, while Yuuta's eyebrow twitched. "It's none of your business."

"Pity, Tachibana-san. Why not come with me? You won't need a ticket if you're in my company," Atobe said smoothly.

Yuuta was beginning to wish he'd had never been born. But wanting to salvage something out of the situation, he leaned down again to whisper into An's ear. "You can go ahead with that guy if you want to. You've gone to a lot of trouble for this, so if you really want to go to the concert, you should take up his offer."

An looked at him.

Then she turned to look back at Atobe smirking.

Inside, Yuuta felt disappointment overwhelm embarrassment.

_Crap. Real smart move, losing the tickets._

Tsu.zu.ku.

**A/N: My God, don't kill me. My last vacation was kinda hell vacation, as I had to organize some things. Then semester started, and chances of updating went flying out the window. So, so sorry. In between the term papers and a bad relationship, things have just been rather crazy. **

**I have the rest kind of written, but the next one is kinda fluffy and waffy. Probably try to spice it up a bit more so that it doesn't turn into mush. So sorry about being such a tardy writer, again. On the bright side, I'm on vacation again, and this time, I've got nothing to do, so I expect I can update as frequently as The Muse visits. **

**Thanks so much, Litena, abc, ennoy, Cosmic Kath, yamatoforever, Aeolus and a.n.g.e.l. I'd give you kisses if I weren't so faithful to Byakuya-sama. **


	7. Episode 7

"Ya-ho, Momo, Ochibi! Let's grab a burger!"

"Iisu," Echizen turned and grinned at his senior who was running up to them.

"Not 'iisu', idiot. The hamburger joint is closed for renovations, remember?" Momoshiro reminded them as he unlocked his bike.

"Heeee?? How come I didn't know nya?"

"Because they just closed yesterday, Eiji-senpai."

"But I'm so hungry nyaaa…."

"Oh. Isn't there that other food place some streets away? You know, where that Yamabuki monster's mother works at."

Eiji glomped the first year, absolutely shining with happiness. "Ya-ho, ochibi! You're a genius! Let's go!"

"But it's so far, how are we going to- WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING ON MY BIKE?!!?"

_xxxxxxx_

"That was NOT 'a few streets', Echizen," Momoshiro panted as fiercely as he possibly could, considering that all he felt like doing was sprawling flat out on the pavement. Never mind the passers-by.

"Come on, Momo-senpai. Hurry up and lock the bike."

Too tired to retort a reply, Momoshiro instead imagined all the painful things he could do Eiji and Echizen without getting on the wrong side of the law for it. He was pretty sure he'd heard somewhere that murder was permissible under certain cases….

Dragging himself up the steps of the restaurant, he pushed open the glass doors – and tripped.

"SSSHHH, Momo! You're gonna let them see you!"

"Eh?" Before Momoshiro could say anything, Eiji had clapped a hand over his mouth and put a finger to his lips.

However next to him Ryoma stood. "This is stupid and I'm hungry. Coming, Momo-senpai?" He strode off to look for a booth.

"Ochibi! Don't!"

Ryoma duly ignored him.

"Eiji-senpai, what are you doing?" Momoshiro stood up and headed after Ryoma. "Come on, let's go…" he trailed off and stopped dead in his tracks.

Behind him, Eiji-senpai smacked his forehead and sighed..

_xxxxxx_

"Get a grip, Momo-senpai," Ryoma said without a hint of sympathy. "I mean, you already knew they were going out like what, 2 months ago. Just because you never saw it before with your own eyes didn't mean it wasn't true."

"Ochibi! That's harsh!" Eiji scolded him as he slurped up his milkshake.

Next to him, Momoshiro sighed, slumped in a corner of their booth.

"Heee…" Ryoma glanced at his upperclassman. "I didn't know he liked her that much."

"Shows how much _you _know, Ochibi."

"Oh yeah? How much do _you _know, Eiji-senpai?"

"Well, sure, Momo didn't think of her in that way at first," Eiji said with an air of knowing everything, "but you see, he's so simple minded that since she was the first girl who treated him so nicely, he couldn't help but like her eventually, see."

"Heee. That makes sense, especially the simple-minded part."

"But that aside! This is the first time I've actually seen them together nya! Ever since Fuji told me they were going out!" He leaned out and grinned rather inappropriately. "Heh heh! Oh, oh! Ochibi! She's _feeding _him!"

Ryoma ignored him. "You're one to tell me I'm harsh. Stop giving a commentary and making Momo-senpai feel worse."

"But I've never seen Fuji no otouto _blush!_"

In response, Momoshiro covered his head with a burger wrapper and wept silent, manly tears of rejection.

_xxxxxxx_

"Stop doing that, it's embarrassing," Yuuta grumbled. Although he didn't really mind.

An laughed in delight. "But I like to see you blush!"

"Take a picture and look at it then."

"Hidoi. You should just do as a girl says!"

"Why?"

"Because you can't resist anyway."

Yuuta half sighed.

"Besides I _miss _you…"

Oh no. Not that tone.

"I haven't seen you for two weeks, and you won't let me come down to St. Rudolph's…."

"I told you, that's a bad idea. It's an all boys' school after all."

She happily stuffed the spoon into his open mouth.

_Xxxxxxx_

"Come on, Momo-senpai. Eiji-senpai, give me a hand."

"Aww, we're leaving already?"

"Don't you get bored watching people on dates? And besides, it's gross, the way they- never mind." Ryoma busied himself hauling his upperclassman's ass out of the booth. Together, he and Eiji dragged Momoshiro out of the restaurant together.

"How are we gonna get him home?"

"And his bike, too. Ah, Ochibi! You take him home."

Ryoma gulped. "Hold on a sec, senpai. I can't possibly ride a bike with Momo-senpai at the back! He's built like a house!"

"Aww Ochibi, you live nearer!"

_xxxxxx_

"Oooh, I think some of your brother's tennis team members just left the restaurant."

Yuuta whipped his head around so fast, he nearly knocked the straw out of his drink. "What? Who? Which one?"

"Umm…Ryoma-kun was one of them. He was dragging Momoshiro-kun out with…what's his name? The one like a cat?"

"Oh, Kikumaru?"

"Ah yeah!"

"Did you say drag?"

"Yeah! I wonder why…"

Yuuta half snorted. "I'm not. Didn't you say he liked you? And you stuffing my mouth with strawberries isn't exactly a nice sight for him."

"Heeee…" An grinned. "See how lucky you are? Your girlfriend is such a heartbreaker!"

"Unlucky, more like. Has it ever occurred to you that some of your crazy admirers might come and beat me up one of these days? Somebody's been giving me threatening phone calls every Tuesday."

"Oh, that'll be Kamio. That's the only day he's alive enough to do anything because there's no tennis practice."

"_AND _I got this threat posted to me last week."

"If it's a Kanagawa address that's Kirihara. Mou," Ann pouted. "is it so much trouble to go out with me then?"

Yuuta's expression softened. "Okay, okay. I was just joking. Stop sulking, I haven't seen you for two weeks. Do you want that face to be all I remember?"

An smiled. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I'm glad you lost those tickets."

"….stop reminding me. That was embarrassing."

"Well if you hadn't, we wouldn't be sitting here."

"Why not?"

"Well, then we wouldn't have taken that romantic walk back home."

"Do you get a kick out of watching me embarrassed?"

"And you wouldn't have caaaarried me home because my feet hurt…"

"Don't ever wear heels again. Please."

"No way! I owe those heels a lot. So do you, Fuji Yuuta-san."

She had a point, Yuuta grudgingly admitted. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, there's still one more stop. We won't make it in time."

"Heee." She made a kissy face, at which he made a puking one, but he still had to admit, she was pretty cute.

_xxxxxxxx_

"Aaaah! There's another one, another one!"

Yuuta shook himself awake. Shit, he was falling asleep on a date.

Sighing, he leaned over to where his tennis bag was propped beside him and fished out his Discman.

Choosing the most lively song he could find, he plugged in one earphone and listened as he watched An bounce next to him counting the planes she could see. It wasn't that it was boring, but he was really really bushed. Tennis practice had been unforgiving for the past few weeks, and in between his schoolwork and everything else, he had had much lesser sleep then he usually preferred. Getting away like this was pretty lucky, considering the hectic pace he was trying to survive. Besides, he knew An would forgive him one way or the other.

An turned back to him after the last plane drifted away from sight. And scowled as she watched him snore. _Oh well, _she thought, smiling resignedly as his head dropped right onto her shoulder.

She noticed his unused earphone and stuffed it into her ear.

_xxxxx_

"You're going home for the weekend, right?" An asked him as they strolled away from the airport towards the train station.

"Yeah."

"By the way," she said as if it had just occurred to her, "I thought you didn't like DAI."

"I don't."

"You were listening to them."

"….I thought I should get used to them, since you like them so much."

"Heee…."

"Isn't that what you'd normally do?"

Instead of replying, she kept silent for a few seconds, deep in thought. "That sort of brings something to mind," she eventually said.

"Mm?"

"Onii-chan's been acting weird lately."

"Uh-huh."

"He keeps zoning out, which is _really _weird."

Yuuta had to agree. Tachibana Kippei and zoning out didn't really go in the same sentence.

"And I mean, it's not like it's illegal to zone out or anything, but he's zoning out _so much _that even _I'm _noticing it."

"Maybe he's in love," Yuuta joked.

"Exactly," she replied without missing a beat.

Yuuta nearly fell over. "Are you for real?"

"Actually I've been suspecting it for some time."

"…..nooooooooooooo way. Your _brother_?"

"What, he can't fall in love?"

"No, but …_your brother_?"

"….and your point is?"

"I mean…Tachibana-san is so serious and all…"

"Exactly, so when he's like that it's really hard not to notice."

"Okay, so with who?"

"Umm, that's the thing. I kinda suspect somebody…but don't freak out."

"Why would I?"

"Uh, because I think it's a guy."

"….that's okay. I think my brother's the same way, myself."

"That's not all."

Nothing could have prepared Yuuta for the next line.

"I think it's your brother."

_xxxxxxxx_

tsuzuku

A/N: AHAHAHAA! The last time I posted was…probably a year ago. That's gotta be a record or something!

Anyway, I have ABSOLUTELY no excuses, except that…I wrote some chapters, found them rubbish, and hence lost my muse. But then right now, I'm at home, bored out of my mind, and well…I watched some PoT episodes and realised how cute Yuuta was! Hahaa! My C2 might come back to life too! Might. So I felt like continuing it again…And although this wasn't exactly one of those hit-me-in-the-eyes thing – I just sorta had a general idea of the direction I wanted to go and I went along with whatever my imagination gave me – I infinitely prefer this to the previous ones, which were WAY too corny. So I just skipped ahead to a point where I could be afford to be less corny. I hope that didn't piss anybody off, since I myself would have liked to read the fluff of the development of YuutaAn (aka My Favourite Pairing), but let's face it, I SUCK AT FLUFF. (I like reading it though.) And I think that describing the scene after the ticket thing would be too much for me. No one might revive me in time as I pass out writing out that much love. (Trust me, I tried. Stopped before it got too far.)

I apologize to everybody for the disgustingly long wait. I'm not surprised if some of you have stopped reading. It's all too common to not read a fic as the author disappears, although in this case she makes a comeback. And I thank everyone who's been so supportive. I can't list it all out, because I'm going crosseyed, it's 1.30 AM and I am determined to post this before I sleep.

But I WOULD like to say – people, write more YuutaAn! The more you write, the happier I become! And the more inspired I become, too.

Yuuta listens to a Discman, because PoT is kinda old. Hahahaha. I wanted to write "mp3 player" and somehow I couldn't. Sorry Yuuta.

Sorry for the long a/n! I just felt bad after a year's disappearance….please feel free to kill me about this filler chapter though. And I will update fast, because I realise how this chapter accomplishes only 2 things, and is too chock-full of YuutaAn sweet nothings. I would write longer except that I feel so bad for taking so long. I will update by next week. Promise. Or you can send me hate letters with anthrax in them.

"


	8. Episode 8

Yuuta decided that love didn't make one blind.

It made one dumb as well. Dumb enough to do crazy, crazy things.

He poked his head out from behind his bedroom door and listened intently to his brother and sister talking downstairs in the kitchen.

Hearing his brother approach the stairs, he quickly pulled back and shut the door as quietly as he could.

After he was sure his brother had entered his room, Yuuta took a deep breath, said a prayer, and grabbed the innocent gift card lying on his desk.

Purposely marching across the landing to his brother's room, he knocked it – and panicked. _Oh no. Should I have waited longer? Did it seem like I was waiting for Aniki to come up? Maybe he's fallen asleep._

"Hai?"

_Shoot that._

"Can I come in?" Yuuta asked, trying to sound as normal as one possibly could under these circumstances.

"Sure. Password?"

Yuuta barged in. "Knock it off, aniki."

"What's up?"

Whatever An had told him to say flew out of his head, and he decided to go by instinct – and held out the gift card he had accidentally crushed into half on his way to his brother's room.

_Xxxxx_

"Mmm? What's that?"

"Iiyaaa, it's just that," An smiled her sweetest smile while trying not to overdo it, "me and Yuuta are _really _grateful that you guys set us up. Because it worked out so well. So we want to say thank you by giving you and Fuji-san a nice treat!"

Her brother gave her a most brotherly smile. "Oh, you know there's no need for that kind of thing. It's more than enough seeing the two of you happy."

_Xxxxxx_

"Oh come on, aniki, just go and have fun once in a while. Besides, An is quite determined to give her thanks, so you might as well just go. You gave up concert tickets for us too, so the least we could do was give you something as a token of appreciation."

Wow. He had actually meant that one. Especially since he had actually _lost _said tickets.

"…Well, if you insist….but will Tachibana-san agree?"

_xxxxxxx_

It was not that he didn't want to go.

It was more like he was afraid to go.

Listening to jazz music and day-dreaming was fine, but actually having to go out with pretty blue eyes was nerve-racking. He had barely survived the last trip. (Which had also been the first trip.)

"I don't know An," he stalled. "I'm really busy these days. I've got a lot of tests coming up, and there's tennis to think of too."

"Oh, but it's just _one _Sunday afternoon," his little sister wheedled. "Besides, Yuuta already asked Fuji-san. I'm pretty sure Fuji-san would be disappointed if you cancelled out on him."

Tachibana had to admit that was true, but logic still argued that he was better off avoiding any sticky situations with the one Fuji Shuusuke. And Tachibana was usually a man of logic.

_Xxxxxxx_

"Well then, I'll just call him up later then, to confirm."

Yuuta heaved an inward sigh of relief. "Thanks Aniki. Have fun then." He turned to leave as quickly as he could before his brother could bug him with anymore weird questions.

"Yuuta."

"…what."

"So did you have fun yesterday?"

Yuuta turned and evilly grinned, pointing to his brother's CD shelf. "Jazz CDs, aniki."

Fuji's face fell.

Yuuta froze in mid-point. "Eh? Didn't you have more than that?"

"Yeah," his brother's expression was unreadably neutral, "I do. I loaned them out to Tachibana though."

Yuuta raised an eyebrow. Maybe An really had a point. "He likes jazz?"

"Saa… he said he didn't really stick to any particular genre."

"I see." Yuuta turned to leave. He wondered if An knew those jazz cds her brother had been listening to belonged to his brother.

"So you better not harm them, Yuuta," Fuji said cheerfully. "Since your future brother-in-law likes them too."

"Get lost, aniki."

_xxxx_

Tachibana had his History notes spread out in front of him, but was not reading a single word.

Borrowing jazz CDs had been a harmless excuse enough to talk to and see Fuji for a few minutes, since there was no way in hell he was ever going to ask Fuji out. Fuji was going to get the wrong idea, which wasn't really wrong in the first place, which didn't help the situation. At any rate, Tachibana was convinced that he had just been partially insane when he actually did it. But at least he had known that he was not going to further challenge what little remaining sanity he had by going beyond borrowing CDs.

So as much as his insane side was going wild at the prospect of going out with Fuji, his sane side was screaming warning red alerts at him. He took a deep breath.

He had options. He could always call Fuji up and make up some excuse. That was the best thing to do, his sane side argued. He wouldn't encounter the possibility of looking like an idiot in front of Fuji, and he would probably escape with his sanity intact.

_Still, _another voice hissed, _what would Fuji think? He'll think you have no life besides school and tennis. And besides, it's just a harmless lunch. Not exactly a candlelight dinner or a hotel room._

_Who cares? _another one retorted. _You don't actually WANT to encourage these crazy feelings do you? You know this is insane._

_So pray tell why you actually asked him for his CDs? _

Tachibana nearly fell off his chair when his mobile phone rang.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the screen. _Shit. _

He had options. He could just let it ring while he figured out what to do…

_What if he never calls back?_

Tachibana gave up and answered.

"Tachibana? It's Fuji here…"

"Hi." Tachibana mentally smacked himself. _So expressive, Kippei. Way to go._

"Are you busy at the moment?" Fuji sounded apologetic.

_Ever so considerate, _Tachibana couldn't help thinking. "Oh, no, not at all. What's up?" _As if he didn't know._

"Ah, you see, my brother gave me this gift card for lunch at, uh…"

"Oh that…so did An."

"I told him I'd call you to confirm. So shall I see you this Sunday?"

A million excuses barged through his head. "Um, sure."

"Okay. See you then."

"See you."

Tachibana hung up and stared at his mobile phone. So much for refusing.

Oh well, at least that just sort of solved the dilemma. Now he just had to make sure that he didn't seem not-normal on Sunday. Yep. That was it.

_Fuji is a friend, Fuji is a friend, Fuji is a friend, _he chanted in his head. _You're going on a friendly lunch given to you as a token of appreciation by your little sister. Friend friend friend. A casual friendly date. No, a non-date. A casual friendly…meeting. Oh right, you can even take the chance to return his CDs! Yeah, Kippei. This is no big deal. Just a friendly …_

Tachibana stared at the little smiley face he had absently drawn on his calendar for the coming Sunday.

This was going to be a huge challenge.

_xxxxx_

Love definitely made you dumb, Yuuta decided. Dumb enough to be crouching down behind a clump of bushes when you could be spending it sleeping the afternoon away…

Oh well, at least An was there.

"Darn, I wish we could hear what they were saying," An mumbled as she shuffled to get a better view. Yuuta decided that maybe the afternoon hadn't been a waste after all, as her shoulder pressed against his.

"I thought you said you can tell just by looking at how your brother acts around mine?"

"Well yeah, but we can barely see them. It'd help if I can hear what they're saying and all."

"We could always go in, if you want."

"That wouldn't exactly guarantee that we can hear them. And if they spotted us, it would be a bit suspicious, wouldn't it?"

"….you just wanted to hear them, you said?"

"Yeah, I…what are you doing?"

Yuuta had whipped out his cellphone and quick-dialling, he held it against his ear.

"Hey, aniki! I can't find the Gokusen DVD, do you know where it is? I wanna watch it….oh you don't? Okay thanks. Have fun." Yuuta then held his lips to his finger, and held out the cell phone to An.

An stared at him.

"Aniki has a really stupid habit of forgetting to terminate his calls," Yuuta whispered.

An's eyes widened. Grinning, she took his cell phone and covering the mouthpiece, held it to her ear. Beside her, Yuuta smiled, resigned, and settled for watching his brother and Tachibana.

_xxxxxx_

"That's it," An said with conviction. "He likes him for sure."

They were walking home, legs sore after three hours of squatting behind a clump of bushes.

"….." Yuuta replied.

"I mean, I know he seems normal on the outside and all, but somehow it's just so _different _from the way he acts around Kamio-kun and the others."

"Maybe it's because Kamio-san is his junior."

"Okay, fine, it's different from how he acts around Ishida-kun. Not really different different, but as in you can tell that he's really making an effort to try to be normal!"

Yuuta had no inkling how she had come to that conclusion, but he admitted defeat on grounds that she _was _his little sister after all.

"Alright, so what are you proposing?"

An turned to him with a glint in her eyes. "Let's matchmake them!"

Yuuta blinked. "…..you mean, like how they matchmade _us_?"

"Well, not exactly in the same way, but hopefully with the same result."

"Hooooold on. When we were match made it wasn't as if either of us liked the other or anything."

"….so?"

"So it was like…..it was safer! I mean, okay, assuming your brother likes mine. But what if my brother likes someone else?"

"…..he DOES?"

"I don't know! I mean what _if_. Then…things could get really messy. I mean, it's because I have no idea about these things with Aniki that it could get really messy. I can't safely tell you he isn't interested in anybody at the moment, much less tell you he's interested in your brother."

"What's wrong with my brother?!"

"Nothing! It's just that Aniki is so weird, I don't _know_. If we act after jumping to conclusions, we might be ruining lives here."

"So what are you proposing we should do?"

"….uh, I propose we do nothing?"

An glared at him.

"Okay, fine. Why not we find out if they're interested in each other or anybody else? If say my brother is interested in someone else, we drop it. Same goes for your brother."

"He's interested in Fuji-san."

"I won't believe it till I hear it from the man himself."

"He'll never say it! Even if you hold him at gunpoint! Trust me on this, onii-chan definitely likes Fuji-san. It's just Fuji-san that's the problem now."

_Yeah, damn you aniki, _Yuuta agreed.

"So all you have to do is find out if Fuji-san likes anybody else!" An said cheerfully as if it was a matter of asking which high school Fuji planned to go to.

"How the hell do I do that?"

"He's _your _brother!"

"…..fine, but if he does, we immediately drop this matchmaking thing."

An sulked.

"…don't give me that look. Come on."

"Hai hai."

Yuuta sighed. Love did really make you dumb enough to do crazy things.

Tsuzuku

A/N: aiiee. I meant to update earlier. But hey at least I made it within the week! I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to. Been extremely busy during weekends playing maid to a bunch of referees at a martial arts meet. Argh.

I'm not quite satisfied with this but at the same time I needed it to move on to Yuuta and An's Great Matchmaking Adventures. Nothing has hit me on the head yet, except for the desire to write. Forgive me. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

And much love to the soul who welcomed me back with warm arms. I felt loved! Yay!


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